Up All Night on NBC

I absolutely love NBC’s new show, Up All Night with Will Arnett and Christina Applegate. My husband is the stay-at-home parent and I am the working parent, and we both enjoyed going out pre-baby; so it is a show to which we can easily relate. I was reminiscing about an experience we had with Kaylee that I thought would be a great show idea for Up All Night. Anxious to pass along my idea, I went to NBC’s website, found a Contact Us link and proceeded to read a clause that essentially says, “No offense, but we’re really not going to read anything you submit so what’s the point in filling out the form below?” Thanks NBC.

Reverting to my sMotherhood outlet, I decided to write up my letter to them anyway. Enjoy!

Dear Writers of Up All Night -

I am a full-time working, football-loving mother and my husband is a stay-at-home, football-loving father to our 15-month old baby girl, Kaylee. When Kaylee was just a couple months old, football season was in full swing and our teams (Dallas Cowboys vs. Greenbay Packers) were set to play each other. Since we were living in Arizona at the time, our game was not going to be televised… except at a local sports bar.

In our attempt to keep our lives as “normal” (i.e. unaffected by the infant that stormed our lives) as possible, we decided to dress Kaylee up in a mix of Cowboys and Packers gear and take her to the “family-friendly” sports bar near our home. We sat at a table near the wall of big screen TV’s, grabbed food and settled in for a morning of football heaven.

The games began…

…And the noise level went sky high.

As a first-time mother who reads everything about what is supposedly best for my baby, and in turn what is the most detrimental, I knew that babies’ hearing is incredibly sensitive. So I spent the morning watching our game and holding my hands securely over Kaylee’s ears. I was so worried that the volume of the TV’s and the cheering fans would harm her brand new ear drums.

We went home that afternoon with me being completely consumed by worry for Kaylee’s hearing. I immediately consulted my What to Expect The First Year book to find out how to check if your baby can hear. I read that if I clapped behind her head and she acted startled, then she can hear! For the next two days, I would wait until Kaylee started nodding off, or even when she was fast asleep, and would clap one time as loud as I could to see if she reacted to the noise. Nothing.

My husband assured me that she was fine, just a mellow baby that doesn’t scare easy. Not that I would readily admit this to him, but he was right. Kaylee ended up being just fine, of course (I eventually scared the crap out of her); and although I was worried sick in the moment, it makes for a funny story… at my expense.

I hope this proves useful to you, and ultimately entertaining for my husband and me!

Thank you,

-Katlyn Duchow-
sMothering Protégé